Category: Sarah Stewart

Genesis 29:15-28

This text is used for the Lectionary Year A on July 30, 2017.

History has a strange way of repeating itself.  There is a couple in my church that just celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary.  They met in 6th grade and have been in love ever since.  Their story seemed strange to me. I don’t know anyone who married their high school sweetheart from my hometown.  Not one.  Over the 35 years of marriage, they raised four boys.  Three out of the four sons married their high school sweetheart.

Our text for today is also a story of history repeating itself.  It is a story about love, deception, waiting, and dysfunctional families.  A journey through Genesis will reveal a flawed, dysfunctional first family of faith.  Abraham and Sarah had their own struggles as they made a mess of their family by trying to bring about God’s promises in their own way (Genesis 16).  Isaac and Rebekah’s twin boys, Esau and Jacob, were estranged, to say the least.  Jacob, the younger, seized the opportunity to steal his brother’s birthright (Genesis 25:31-34).  His brother came to him famished, and Jacob used that moment to take what was rightfully Esau’s.  Toward the end of Isaac’s life, his wife Rebekah conspired with Jacob to deceive his father Isaac through a masquerade.  Jacob was able to make his father believe he was Esau.  Isaac gave his full blessing to Jacob (Genesis 27:27-29), and there was none left for Esau (Genesis 27:37).  The hatred and conflict between Jacob and Esau reached a boiling point when Esau planned to murder his brother.  The threat to the covenant in this generation is the conflict between Jacob and Esau.

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Genesis 28:10-19a

This text is used for the Lectionary Year A on July 23, 2017.

God often shows up when we are most vulnerable.  In my own life, the moment I felt closest to God was one of my weakest moments.  I was sitting in a hospital room holding my toddler as he recovered from surgery to place a feeding tube in his belly.  I remember feeling as though that hospital room turned into a sacred place as God wrapped his arms around both of us.  God has always been in the business of revealing himself when we are most alone.

Our text for today is a beautiful story of God revealing himself to one of the patriarchs of our faith when he was alone and vulnerable.  This story is about God revealing his promises, blessings, and faithfulness.  God has continued his covenant that he started with Abraham, passed down through Isaac, and is now promised to Jacob.

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Genesis 25:19-34

This text is used for the Lectionary Year A on July 16, 2017.

As the mother of three young boys, my house is filled with wrestling, hugging, shouting and laughing.  Like most Christian parents, I pray over my children.  My husband and I do our best to teach our kids to love God and love others.  One of the hardest things for me to accept is that at the end of the day, we do not control their behavior now and certainly not in the days to come.  Parents have been praying for children and praying that they would walk in the ways they were instructed since the beginning of time.  This particular subject is extremely personal and should be handled carefully.

The story for today is about the promise of God, prayer, family conflict, and the grace of God working through flawed people.  The Bible is filled with examples of children who have grown up in homes of faithful parents but have chosen a different path.  Consider Noah and how quickly his sons turned to sin or David and the rebellion of his sons, Amnon and Absalom.  There are numerous examples from modern day of minister’s kids and missionary kids walking away from the faith of their parents.  Ultimately the heart of the story is about Esau and his rejection of his spiritual heritage.

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Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

This text is used for the Lectionary Year A on July 9, 2017.

How do we hear from God?  I grew up hearing people say that God spoke to them or God showed them what to do.  This is often one of the ways Christians make others feel inferior.  We talk in lofty terms when we speak of the divine guidance from God.  Does he speak audibly?  How does he reveal his will in your life?  Our text for today is a beautiful picture of a servant looking for God’s hand and his guidance.

This story is about obedience, faith, prayer, God’s activity and work, and a response of worship.  Abraham and Sarah had lived long faithful lives.  They both received a promise from God and new names to remind them of that promise.  They were given a son in their old age, a son for whom they had longed for many years.  The covenant God made with Abraham promised (Genesis 15:14-21) that he would give him a son through his own body.  God promised he would make his offspring as numerous as the stars.  He made a covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15:14-16) that his descendants would live as strangers in this country and they would be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years.  God promised he would punish the nation that oppressed them.  God promised Abraham that he would be buried at a good old age.  Finally, he promised that in the fourth generation his descendants would come back to this land.

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